Peace In The House

by Karen Singer

 

Chapter 1: No Pain, No Gain

 

Kate Thompson was just glad to have a job. But better than that, this one actually paid pretty well. She had been unemployed for only a week before she found this job, and as a single parent with two teenagers to take care of, the extra money was really needed. There were problems of course. The new job meant that she would have to work a long day shift, but since John was now seventeen and Sally was fifteen, she figured that they were old enough that she could trust them on their own until she got home.

The two kids frequently fought like cats and dogs and sometimes Kate felt like her biggest job in life was just keeping peace in the house. John and Sally would just have to learn to put up with each other, something she had always wished for, but had never happened.

School had just let out for the summer that week and her new schedule would mean that she could not be there for them during the day from about 8:00 in the morning to about 6:00 at night, but the kids would just have to take care of themselves until she could get home in the evening. She thought they were certainly old enough to learn.

John was a surly boy. He often kept to himself and lately he didn't seem to want anything to do with being part of the family. He just wanted to be by himself. He was getting to be somewhat verbally abusive towards everyone and was bordering on being a real problem. Kate figured it was a part of his age and the friends he must be hanging around with.

Sally on the other hand was outgoing and energetic. She had something of a temper and more than a little bit of a mean streak in her, but overall, she was a joy. Where John hadn't taken an interest in any after-school activities, Sally had started early with dance classes and then later had gotten heavily into the martial arts. Something she had gotten very good at in the past few years. Kate thought that John could have learned a lot from some martial arts training, but he was always too full of himself to ever try.

On her first day of work, Kate fed John and Sally some breakfast before she left, then sat down to talk to them. "John, I'm putting you in charge and …"

"What!" said Sally suddenly angry. "Why should he be in charge, I don't need anybody telling me what to do."

"Cause I'm older," taunted John "and …"

"Stop that!" yelled Kate. "I'm tired of you two not getting along and I don't want to hear any more arguing! And John, wipe that silly smirk off your face! You two are going to have to learn to get along together and handle things while I'm at work. Now no more arguing! Is that understood?"

"Yes Mom" they both answered reluctantly.

With that, Kate kissed them both goodbye and headed out the door to work while John and Sally just sat there and glared at each other.

"Just remember," John smirked to Sally "I'm in charge."

"Get lost!" Sally returned angrily then headed for her room.

 

It was shortly after 12:30 when John came into the den and interrupted Sally while she was watching TV. "I'm getting hungry, he said. "Make me something to eat."

"What?" said Sally. "Make yourself something. I'm watching TV."

"Mom put me in charge," said John, "so I'm telling you to make me something to eat!"

"Well if you're supposed to be in charge," Sally replied, "then you should be taking care of me. Make 'me' something to eat!"

"No," shouted John. "I'm not going to take care of you. You're supposed to do what I tell you to!"

"No way!" shouted Sally back as she got up and stood staring him eye to eye. "I'm not going to do whatever 'you' tell me to do. I don't need anybody telling me what to do! Especially some loser wimp like you!"

"I am not a wimp!" shouted John.

"Yes you are!" shouted Sally.

"Am not!" shouted John.

"Are too!" shouted back Sally.

Sally knew how to push John's buttons and her temper was really up now. But this time, she had questioned the first bit of authority that John had ever had and he was suddenly pushed over the edge. In his rage, he took a swing right at his sister's face. It was the first time he had ever done it, and it would be the last time he ever tried. The punch never even came close. Sally's martial arts training instantly kicked in and John suddenly found himself head over heals coming down hard on his back. Sally's temper and training were both working together now and she wasn't about to stop there.

John suddenly found himself the recipient of blow after blow as she screamed and shouted at him. "Don't you ever try that again!" she yelled. I'll kill you if you do."

John was crying and blubbering like a baby on the floor. "I'm sorry," he kept saying, "I'm sorry. Please stop."

Sally finally put one more minor kick into his back and then stood back watching her brother. She had beaten him up with ease. Of course she had known that she could. He really was a wimp. But now, he had to know that she was a lot stronger than he was and that she wasn't anyone he could ever push around. She didn't like John being in charge, and now, she would fix that. But first, just a little more button pushing. "Say it!" she commanded.

John was still crying. His ego had just suffered a major blow and he wasn't handling it very well. "Say what?" he blubbered.

"That you're a wimp." she replied.

"No." said John still crying.

Sally wasn't going to take no for an answer though. Instantly, she was on top of him twisting his arm into a very painful position.

John just couldn't take pain. "Awww!" he screamed "stop, stop," he cried pitifully.

"Say it!" Sally commanded again.

By this time, John would do anything to stop the pain and get her off of him. "I'm a wimp" he blubbered finally.

"Say it so I can hear it!" Sally commanded.

"I'm a wimp." John said louder.

"And are you going to give me any more orders?" She asked.

"No," said John defeated, his twisted arm still hurting. "Please get off of me."

But Sally wasn't quite through with him yet. She twisted his arm a little further and said "Mom said that you were in charge, but now tell me which one of us is really the boss around here?"

"You are," said John screaming from the pain again.

"And are you going to do everything I tell you to do?" Sally asked.

"Yes, yes, please stop," cried John.

"Then get in there and make us some lunch," said Sally forcefully as she pushed him away from her. "And it better be good!"

John got up slowly from the carpet and made his way crying into the kitchen, all the time keeping as much distance as possible between himself and Sally. Sally sat down on the couch, no longer interested in the TV. She had to take stock of what had just happened. She decided quickly that she was going to have to find a way to keep John from telling Mom what she had just done. That was going to be very important. She also decided that now that John was "under her thumb," she was going to have to find a way to keep him there. With that thought, her inventive mind went into overdrive.

John moped around the kitchen for a while trying to figure out what to fix. His mom had said there was some left over ham from last nights dinner in the refrigerator that could be used to make sandwiches, so he eventually got busy fixing some ham and cheese sandwiches for them both. All the while he worked, his resentment at Sally grew and grew. "She can't push me around like that," he thought. "I'll get back at her. I'll tell Mom. She'll fix her. I'll hit her so hard she won't know what happened! She can't give me orders." Now that Sally was no longer in the room, his courage was returning, but he finished fixing their lunch anyway.

When it was ready, he called Sally into the kitchen – none too politely.

Sally immediately noticed that his old attitude was returning. As soon as she got into the kitchen she warned him "You better watch how you talk to me, or you'll get it again!"

"I'll talk to you anyway I want to." John shot back at her. "You can't tell me what to do." John's brain obviously wasn't functioning too well.

Sally was shocked. She had just given him the beating of his life and he was already arguing with her. He was also making her angry again. "You're acting like a spoiled brat!" she yelled at him. "Do you need me to give you a good spanking like a baby? Something that will make you remember who's really in charge here?"

"You wouldn't dare!" John retorted. "You just got lucky a little while ago. You try anything again and I'll make you wish you were never born!" John yelled back at her.

Sally had all she could take. She couldn't believe that John was actually standing up to her again. She knew she had to put a stop to that fast. She crossed the floor in a flash. John cringed back a little but the only thing that was really on his mind was defending himself. He really had no chance though. Sally landed a hard kick right into his balls that dropped him instantly to his knees in pain. Sally came around behind him and jerked his right arm up behind him again and actually lifted him up to his tip-toes like that.

"Aww! Stop, Don't, your breaking my arm." John cried.

"You just don't learn do you," Sally said. "Now who's in charge here?" she asked him.

"You are," John replied crying again.

"And are you going to give me any more trouble again?" Sally asked him.

"No," John said again crying harder in obvious pain.

"I think you deserve that spanking I warned you about," said Sally. "Maybe it will help you to remember that you do whatever I tell you to do, and that you need to speak politely to me – always! Now, take your pants off," she said to him.

"What?" John cried in terror.

"I said take your pants off so I can give you a spanking," Sally said to him again.

"No, don't" John said but that's all he was able to say. Sally immediately twisted his arm a bit more and John went crazy with pain. "Ok, Ok" he cried.

"Well, I'm waiting" Sally said easing the strain on his arm just a little.

"I can't, you're twisting my arm." John said.

"I've only got your one arm," said Sally, "you still have another one."

John had to use only his left arm to undo his belt, unfasten the button on his jeans and then try to slide them down his legs. All the while crying like a baby.

Sally got tired of waiting on him and as soon as he had lowered his pants, she grabbed the waistband of his underwear and ripped them down too. Then she grabbed his other arm and twisted it behind his back with the first one and marched him over toward the chairs. Sally sat down, and then kicked John's legs out from under him so that he landed right in her lap. While she held both of his arms up behind him with her left hand, Sally gave John the spanking of his life with her right hand. John was already crying, and now he just screamed in pain and humiliation.

John's backside was bright red by the time that Sally finally figured he had had enough. As soon as she let him up, John reached to pull up his pants, but Sally stopped him. "Did I say you could pull your pants up?" Sally asked him.

"No" blubbered John.

"You're crying like a baby. Maybe that's how I should treat you, like a baby. Go stand in the corner baby John," she ordered him. "And leave your pants around your ankles till I tell you otherwise," she added.

John shuffled over to the corner of the kitchen and stood there facing the corner and crying.

"All the way into the corner!" Sally ordered. "I want to see your nose touching the wall!" she added.

The tone of her voice left John no choice but to put his face as far into the corner as he could until his nose touched the wall. And that's how he stayed while Sally ate her lunch in silence.

When Sally had finished eating, she looked at him standing in the corner. "You really are nothing but a big wimpy baby," she said. "I can't believe how pathetic you are. You can't even take that simple little spanking I gave you. Maybe we should put you back into diapers to show Mom what you really are."

That evoked another round of muffled crying from John who was still keeping his nose pressed into the corner.

"What a baby!" Sally said disgustedly. With that, she got up and went over to the counter and started working. John could hear the blender going, but had no idea what she was doing. Finally, Sally said to John, "Are you ready to come out of the corner yet?"

"Yes" was all he answered.

"Are you sorry for the way you spoke to me?" Sally asked next.

"Yes" John answered.

"Are you going to do what I tell you to from now on?" Sally asked.

"Yes" John answered again.

"Then you can come out of the corner now," she finally told him.

John turned around slowly. His eyes were bloodshot and his whole face was wet from tears. He started to reach for his pants, but a sharp "Leave them!" from Sally stopped him.

"Come over here and I'll feed you your lunch like the baby you are!" Sally said to him.

John shuffled over to the table and tried to sit down, but as soon as he did so, his sore backside forced him to stand right up again.

Sally laughed. "Sit down!" she ordered.

John immediately sat back down and tried to get comfortable, but his sore backside was on fire. Sally set a bowl of something on the table in front of him, then pulled up a chair next to him.

"What's that?" John asked.

"Your lunch" Sally told him, "I pureed your sandwich into baby food."

"Oh, please no," said John.

"Shut up and open your mouth!" Sally ordered him as she brought a spoonful of the mashed up sandwich to his mouth. John actually started to lift his hands to stop her, but she just said, "Don't!" and that was all it took.

Sally spoon-fed John the entire bowl. His occasional crying at being treated and humiliated like this caused some of the food to get all over his face. "Just like a baby!" said Sally.

When he was finished, Sally wiped off his face then told him to clean up the kitchen. "And take those pants off" she said. "You don't need them right now. Maybe it'll help remind you just who wears the pants around here now" she added.

She hadn't thought about what she had just said before. It just came out, but she kind of liked the symbolism of that. She thought about it some more as she watched him doing the dishes before she left him to watch some more TV.

When John finished in the kitchen, he walked into the den. His eyes were still red from crying and he was trying to hold his hands in front of him to preserve a little bit of modesty. Sally almost laughed. "May I please put my pants back on now?" he asked politely for a change.

"No" said Sally.

"But I can't go around half naked all day" John said.

Sally looked at him. "I'll think about it. In the meantime, sit down on the floor and watch TV while I figure out what to do with you. And stop trying to cover yourself up!"

John bashfully moved his hands from in front of himself and sat down on the floor like he was told as watched TV.

Sally sat watching her brother for a while then suddenly came to a conclusion. "Darn it all!" she suddenly said. "I suppose your right. You can't stay like that all the time. Stay right there" and she hurried out of the room.

She came back a few minutes later and threw something at John. "Put that on!" she commanded.

John unfolded the bit of material she had thrown at him and was shocked to see that it was one of her short skirts.

"But …" John started.

"No buts!" said Sally. "Put it on or go naked. The choice is yours."

John reluctantly got up and pulled the elastic waist of the skirt into place.

It was obvious just looking at him how embarrassed he was and Sally laughed. "It looks real cute on you," she finally said. Now go to your room for a while, I'm tired of looking at you."

With that John gladly ran out of the den up to his bedroom and closed the door behind him. When he got to his room, he laid down on the bed feeling sorry for himself for about an hour. Then he got busy with something else.

Sally in the meantime was trying to figure out just how she was going to keep John under her thumb and at the same time not have him tell their Mom what she had done. She finally decided to threaten him with another severe spanking and maybe actually spank him a little again until he agreed not to tell.

With that plan in mind, she went up to his room and just barged in. What she saw surprised her completely. John was smoking a marijuana joint and was obviously a little high. That was the last thing that Sally had been prepared to see. There was a large zip-lock bag full of the stuff on the bed beside him. "John! What are you doing?" she blurted out in shock.

John had been surprised by Sally's sudden appearance and hadn't thought anyone would ever find out. He was about to grab the bag to hide it but Sally got to it first. As he tried to reach to take it from her, she just pushed him back onto the bed. At least this time, John was smart enough to not try to fight with her. "What are you going to do?" John asked her.

"I don't know yet," Sally answered truthfully. "I'll just have to think about it. I suggest you stay here in your room for the rest of the day till Mom gets home, or I say otherwise." And Sally went out to think.

Now Sally had a bigger problem. What she had done to John earlier was bad and she knew it was wrong. Even though she had been planning to keep it a secret from her mother so that John wouldn't bother her anymore, she had still felt very guilty about it. She and her mother had always shared a very close bond, something that Sally really didn't want to break. But now that she had discovered John's drugs, that kind of put a different light on everything. Sally knew in the end that she would have to tell her mother the truth about everything. Being honest was the only way she could ever stop feeling the guilt she now felt and continue to enjoy the warm loving relationship she had always had with her mother.

Sally stayed quietly at home for the rest of the day. What she had to tell her mother never left her mind. She knew her mother would be devastated by it, but it had to be told. Curiously, or maybe not, John never did come down from his room. He stayed there all day. A little bit before her mother was due home, Sally went into the kitchen to start preparing dinner. It was a small peace offering of sorts, but it also gave her something to do, as the appointed time of her talk with her mother grew closer.

Kate arrived home right around 6:00 like she said she would. She hurried in the back door and was about to call out to announce that she was home when she saw Sally sitting quietly at the kitchen table. She could smell dinner cooking and that made her really glad, but it was obvious from looking at Sally that there was something wrong. "Sally, what's wrong? Where's John?" she asked suddenly very concerned.

"John's in his room," Sally said then continued. "Mom, I need to talk to you."

"What's wrong Sweetie?" Kate asked still concerned and very puzzled as she sat down facing her daughter.

Sally took a big breath then started. "Mom, I have something to show you and I have something to tell you."

"What is it?" Kate asked again.

"I found this in John's room this afternoon," Sally said as she brought the plastic bag up from her lap and set it on the table in front of her mother.

Kate suddenly felt like the whole world was crashing in on her. She recognized what was in the bag immediately. She had never wanted to believe that one of her kids could ever be involved with drugs, but now, here was Sally showing her the evidence. "Oh God no!" said Kate finally as she started to get up to go up to John's room.

"Mom, please sit down and listen to the rest of what I want to tell you" Sally said.

Kate was having enough trouble with the knowledge of John's drug use, and now Sally was telling her there was more? She sat back down staring at her daughter in a daze. She was in shock and wasn't sure what she should do.

Sally had rehearsed the words over and over again in her head all afternoon, but actually saying them was one of the hardest things she had ever done. "Mom, John and I had another fight today when he tried to order me around, only this time he tried to punch me in the face. I blocked him and then beat him up a little and made him make me a sandwich for lunch."

Hearing that Sally had beat up John suddenly made Kate very concerned about John's health, but she sat silently waiting for Sally to finish.

"When I went in to eat it, he was really rude to me again, and I'm afraid I got mad at him and gave him a spanking."

"You gave him a spanking?" Kate echoed her daughter's words as she stared in astonishment at her daughter.

"I did," Sally continued, "then I made him stand in the corner with his pants still down because he had been acting like such a baby. Later, after he ate his lunch, I made him take his pants off and put on one of my skirts to help him remember who really wears the pants around here now. Then I sent him to his room. Later, when I went up to talk to him, he was smoking one of those. I grabbed the bag and left him there."

"Did you hit him again?" Kate asked her.

"No Mom, I just left him. I was so shocked when I found these that I couldn't think to do anything else. He's been up there all day since."

Kate just stared at her daughter and then at the drugs in front of her. She started to get up again, but Sally stopped her. "Mom, I'm really sorry for what I did. I know how wrong it was and I know I deserve whatever punishment you decide for me, but please, I have a special request."

"What is it?" was all Kate could think to say.

"Mom, please, put me in charge when you leave. I can handle John but I really can't stand for him to be ordering me around."

When it was obvious that Sally didn't have any more to say, Kate just got up, grabbed the bag of marijuana joints, and headed upstairs to John's room. She didn't knock, she just walked in. John was on his bed reading a magazine. Kate was surprised to see he was still wearing Sally's skirt.

John just looked at her without saying anything. He knew he was in major trouble. "I'm sorry Mom" was all he could say.

Kate stared at him for a moment, her anger, disappointment, and frustration growing by the second. Suddenly, she just ran out of the room slamming the door closed behind her.

She ran straight into the bathroom and dumped the drugs into the toilet and flushed it. There were tears streaming down her face. When the toilet filled up again, she flushed it again. All she could think about was that she wanted those drugs as far away from her house as possible. As she watched the toilet filling again, she called out to Sally to come to her. "Sally, when this fills up again, I want you to flush it again. And I want you to stand here and do it over and over and over again until I tell you to stop!" Kate was crying. She knew she was being crazy about what she just told Sally to do, but she didn't care.

Then she went back into John's room. She was crying openly now, but her anger and frustration were driving her forward. She went over to John and slapped him on the face. She knew she shouldn't have done that and deep down inside she was sorry for it, but she was really angry. "What did you think you were doing?" she screamed. "Don't you know how bad those things are? I thought I raised you better than that! You don't know how disappointed I am in you." She was crying and the words were just coming out. She didn't know what she was saying and it really didn't matter. It was her emotions that were getting across, and that's what really counted.

Finally, a coherent thought crossed her mind and she asked him. "Where did you get the money to buy all that stuff? I know those things cost a lot and you didn't have that much. Where did the money come from?"

When John was slow to answer, she hit him again and yelled, "Tell me!"

John was crying too. He had good reason. He had never seen anyone so angry before in his life.

"I sold Sally's earrings," he said at last through his tears.

"You what?" said Kate. "What earrings?"

"Her diamond earrings," John replied.

There was a very loud scream from the hallway behind them as Sally ran to her room to check.

"You sold Sally's diamond earrings that your father had given her? She cherished them!"

"Well, she hardly ever wore them and I didn't think she'd really miss them," John said.

"They're gone, they're gone!" a hysterical Sally screamed as she ran back through the hall and barged into the room.

"Get back out!" Kate yelled at her daughter. Sally reluctantly backed out of the room.

Kate was beside herself. She knew she had to be alone and think for a while. "You stay here" was all she said to John as she left his room closing the door behind her.

Sally was in the hallway. "Mom, …"

Kate stopped her daughter from saying anything else by just raising her hand. "Go down and make sure dinner doesn't burn. It may be a while before anyone here feels much like eating tonight. Then leave me alone for a bit."

Kate went into her room and fell on the bed sobbing. She cried for what felt like an eternity before she could finally stop and start thinking again. She knew she had some decisions to make. First of all, John had to be prevented from getting his hands on any more drugs. He obviously couldn't be trusted anymore and he definitely couldn't be allowed to hang around with those friends of his again. But now she had this new job and she had to support her family. She couldn't stay home and take care of them. They needed the money. Kate had no idea what to do about the situation.

Around 7:30 she told Sally and John to go down to get something to eat. She stayed in her room. She still didn't have any answers.

It was a very quiet household that evening. John and Sally sat down to eat, but neither of them really ate anything and neither of them said a word. They both worked together, without saying anything, cleaning up the kitchen afterwards, then they headed back to their rooms.

  

  

  

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